Book: “Lost Souls At The Neptune Inn” by Betsy Carter
Genre: Women’s Fiction/Historical Fiction
Rating: 4-/5 Stars
Five Word Description: Emotional, Raw, Generational, Heartbreaking, Flawed
Blogger’s Note: Thank you to Grand Central Publishing for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
“Lost Souls At The Neptune Inn” by Betsy Carter follows the story of a family of women living in the 1960s. The novel provides some backstory by opening with Geraldine, the unwilling matriarch, struggling through parenthood during 1929. Geraldine ends up having a baby girl who then grows up to have another little girl. “Lost Souls At The Neptune Inn” explores the different life experiences of the three generations of women and how they are intertwined.
Descriptive and character driven, the book is definitely a slow burn. It is emotional and left me feeling stressed for the characters in different situations. Interestingly, I felt connections with several of the characters at various points in the book. The author does a great job of relaying the expectations of the main characters and then revealing their emotions when things do not going according to plan.
The book pacing felt slow to me at times and I felt a wavering interest in the book. At some points, I was completely invested and at others it felt like the plot had dropped off a bit. With that being said, the author expertly details the personalities of the main characters which kept me reading. The generational differences were highlighted in a way that makes the storyline vivid and dynamic.
Acceptance and happiness are major themes within the book. There are situations featured in the novel that will pull on the reader’s heart strings. For some reason, these emotional events didn’t take a deep root within my heart, but more emotional readers may want some tissues nearby. The ending fit the storyline perfectly and I was pleased that everything was wrapped up and left in a tidy manner.
Recommendations: Pick up this book if you’ve enjoyed other novels from this author or if you enjoy character driven generational novels.
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